{"id":148,"date":"2009-12-07T12:39:14","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T19:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?page_id=148"},"modified":"2010-01-02T21:23:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-03T04:23:32","slug":"lutherans-need-to-know-what-episcopalians-teach","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?page_id=148","title":{"rendered":"Lutherans Need To Know What Episcopalians Teach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Printable PDF<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

(A Response to J. Robert Wright [www.ecusa.anglican.org\/ecumenism<\/a>] \t\t\t\tin 7 parts)<\/p>\n

by Dr. Meg H. Madson<\/p>\n

What have Episcopalians and Roman Catholics agreed upon regarding the Historic Episcopate? What \t\t\t\trole does the Historic Episcopate play within The Episcopal Church? What difference does this make \t\t\t\tfor Lutherans? How do Episcopalians actually do theology?<\/p>\n

1. The Problem of Teaching Authority in the Anglican Communion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How does a church \t\t\t\tdescribe and define its doctrinal stance? Of course it is usual to appeal to Scripture. Lutherans \t\t\t\talso subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions, and, as a consequence, have a mind set that assumes other \t\t\t\tchurches, when making doctrinal statements, also subscribe to them as definitive and permanent. But \t\t\t\tthe Episcopal Church, as the Righter Trial Court has stated, is \u201cnot a confessional church\u201d (see \t\t\t\tII-A of the Official \t\t\t\tReport<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Lutherans are therefore misled in their own minds when Episcopalians make doctrinal statements \t\t\t\tbecause we assume such statements have a definitive and permanent status within the Anglican communion. \t\t\t\tFor example, when Episcopalians cite the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), as Dr. Wright does, most Lutherans \t\t\t\thave no idea that the BCP is revised periodically and not merely in incidental ways. Nor do they \t\t\t\trealize that the BCP means \u201cwhatever the General Convention says it is at the moment the question \t\t\t\tis asked\u201d[1]<\/a> as John Sutter, Custodian of \t\t\t\tthe Standard Book of Common Prayer has stated. Further, most Lutherans do not know that the Thirty-Nine \t\t\t\tArticles no longer have any confessional status, but are historical documents describing what Anglicans \t\t\t\tonce held and some still choose to hold.<\/p>\n

How then do Anglicans define themselves, that is, define themselves in a permanent and \u201cdefinitive\u201d way? \t\t\t\tSome will claim that such-and-such is what Anglicans have always done, but this proves fallible because \t\t\t\tonly one exception disproves the claim, and as is well-known, exceptions exist. Others will point \t\t\t\tto the majority, even an overwhelming majority, but this is to define by majority and in one way \t\t\t\tor another to determine theology by survey, truly to make the lex orandi<\/em> definitive. Majorities \t\t\t\tvary, ecumenical councils can err. Thus recourse is often had to prominent Anglican leaders and high-level \t\t\t\tcommissions, and again Lutherans are misled in their own minds because they do not see that such \t\t\t\tprominent Anglican leaders and high-level commissions, no matter how sincere and firmly held their \t\t\t\ttheological convictions, are not speaking confessionally, that is, definitively for the whole Anglican \t\t\t\tcommunion. For example, on the Lord\u2019s Supper some Anglicans hold to a position akin to Zwingli \t\t\t\tand others a position akin to Transubstantiation, and because this is not defined confessionally, \t\t\t\tthere is no way to sort this out, no matter how individuals or commissions state their case. Again, \t\t\t\tall of this is well-known, but most Lutherans, locked in their own mind set, do not understand how \t\t\t\tAnglicans in fact function.<\/p>\n

But what of a recent development within the Anglican communion, the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral \t\t\t\tof 1886-1888? Does the Quadrilateral not define, and in at least a quasi-confessional sense? For \t\t\t\tmany Anglicans this is undoubtedly the case. But how in fact does the Quadrilateral function for \t\t\t\tall Anglicans? As practicalrules: one must read the Scriptures, recite the creeds, celebrate the \t\t\t\tsacraments, and have the historic episcopate. Three examples:<\/p>\n